In this delightful illustrated book written in rhyme, the
children gaze at a face-shaped cloud. Aiden asks if it is real: "I sense
it really sees me. Who knows what it can do! Maybe it has magic powers
that make the sky so blue!" To answer, we introduce our favorite
feathered-dinosaur, the Skeptisaurus, who guides the children to use their
critical thinking skills when determining myth from fact. He takes the kids on
an amazing journey through legends of old times, from witches to oracles,
explaining how we evolved to see things that aren't always there. But when
those myths vanish, they see that real scientific discovery is just as
exciting, if not more. With his help, the kids learn that "real answers
may not be magic, but they are always magical." This book raised over
$11,000 in pre-orders on Kickstarter.

Excerpt:

Annabelle and Aiden

stared up at a cloud.

When something it did

made them gasp out loud.

It swirled into

the strangest shape.

A nose! A face!

They had to gape.

“I sense it really sees me.

Who knows what it can do?

Maybe it has magic powers

that make the sky so blue.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” said

a rainbow-feathered snout.

“I’m Skeptisaurus the dinosaur.

It seems like you’re in doubt.”

“Before accepting your guess

just based on how you feel,

Let’s admit we just don’t know,

and discover if it’s real.”

“But discovery takes work and time!

Why search, when we just could

accept the answers we made up

like feelings say we should?”

“Feelings are important;

they add beauty to our life.

But for telling us what’s real outside,

they can cause lots of strife.”

“Why would they trick us?”

I thought you might ask.

Cuz we got them from people

from our long ago past.

People that survived

by running from a bear.

Or any sort of sound or threat

that often wasn’t there.

That’s why we think monsters

are the sounds under our beds.

And make up our own authors

for the voices in our heads.

We’re wired to see patterns

like pictures in grilled cheese.

On Mars, in stars, in cliffsides -- Oh,

the things we once believed!

Bio:

J. R. holds a B.A. in Philosophy and a Juris
Doctorate from Emory University School of Law. When he's not
practicing entertainment law, playing drums, or enjoying the great outdoors,
Joseph enjoys all the science and philosophy books and podcasts he can, pondering
the bigger questions and dreaming up ideas for future children stories.

After publishing his first (philosophical,
dystopian) novel The
Spider & the Ant, and later becoming a father, Joseph was inspired
to found the Annabelle & Aiden series to foster curiosity and
scientific awareness in the next generation.

Joseph lives in New Jersey with his wife Leah, and
two children, Annabelle & Aiden.

Mountain lion shifter Laura Vidal has been given two choices: leave the
territory to find a mate, or become a guardian of the pride. Unwilling to leave
the only home she’s ever known, Laura chooses the rigorous and bruising
guardian training. Honestly, she’s glad for the training because it keeps her
too busy to see Dristan, the guy who rocked her world during an amazing
one-night stand.

Dristan Rhees can’t forget the girl who stole his heart after a single
night of unbridled passion. When she won’t give him the time of day, though, he
vows to move on. Maybe he could focus on growing his small business and living
a quiet life, if not for the vampires that invade their territory. With the vampires
threatening their pride, Dristan and Laura are forced to work together, and
they must confront the desire that still threatens to consume them.

Excerpt:

The bar top was warm beneath Dristan’s forearms as
he hunched over it, trying to ignore the humans around them. He didn’t know why
he’d let his brother talk him into going out—he not only hated going out in the
snow, but lately he hadn’t felt very social. If he wanted to drink with his
brother, they didn’t have to go any farther than the fridge in their apartment.
But Frasier had some messed-up notion that Dristan needed to “get off his sad
stick and go someplace fun.”

Thus, here they were at Hart’s. It used to be an
old farmhouse, but the lower level had been opened up into a large room, booths
added along the sides, pool tables in the center. There was an arcade upstairs,
along with a few more pool tables, but tonight Dristan didn’t want to stray too
far from the bar.

He felt like he was living in one of those country
songs his buddy Rafe liked to listen to so much. Cold Montana winter, brooding
man at a bar, trying to forget the girl who got away.

“You ever feel like you’re living in a song,
Fraze?” he asked his brother.

“Only when I’m feeling melodramatic and
self-pitying and generally no fun to be around,” Frasier said.

“Asshole.”

“I’m rubber,
you’re glue,” Frasier quoted in a sing-song voice. “Whatever you say bounces off me and goes back to you. Go get laid
or something. You haven’t been the same since—”

“I know.” Since he and Laura had enjoyed a
beautiful, perfect night in each other’s arms…and then she’d pretended it had
never happened. For almost a year. It hadn’t been fun watching her go on with
her life as if Dristan didn’t exist. He took a drink from his pint glass. “Why
do you always think sex is the answer to life’s problems?”

“If you don’t start having fun on your own, I’m
going to have to take drastic measures,” Frasier said. “There’s a blonde in the
corner, sexy red dress. Or no, that cute little brunette in the silver halter top.
She can’t take her eyes off you.”

Dristan didn’t even bother looking in either
woman’s direction. “If she’s in a halter top, she’s a damn fool. It’s too cold
for that kind of nonsense.”

“I’m no fool,” a familiar voice said from behind
him.

Shit. Frasier had played him. “Laura?”

She shimmied around him and propped herself on the
stool between him and Frasier. Her brown hair shone in a straight fall down her
back, and her green eyes appraised him coolly. “Rafe, Mateo, and Justine are on
their way. What game are we playing tonight? Take a drink every time a woman
looks at Dristan?”

Was she teasing him on purpose? It was the same
game they’d played the last time all of them had come to Hart’s—the same night
that he and Laura had spent together afterward.

Bio:

Liza got her start in romance by sneak-reading her
grandma’s paperbacks. Years later, she tried her own hand as a ghostwriter of
romance and it wasn’t long before she started developing her own series. Now
she divides her time between freelance editing, ghostwriting, and mountain lion
shifters with fierce and savage hearts.